The GSS offers a cruder and less precise way of looking at the same thing, though our sample is 20x as large.

The following table shows average IQ estimates (converted from wordsum scores and assuming a white average of 100 and a standard deviation of 15) for female respondents whose weights were deemed either "below average", "average", "somewhat above average", or "considerably above average". Those who conducted the interviews were the ones who assigned respondents to one of the four weight categories. To avoid language fluency confounds only survey respondents born in the US are included (n = 616):

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

You have to account for the fact that black women are the fattest group. Their average IQ is 85 at best. Maybe they're fatter because they're dumber, but to be able to say so with confidence you would need to break it down by both weight and race.

Good point, though the difference between "considerably above average" and the rest is even larger for white women than it is for all women. Sample sizes are too small to look at any other racial group.

I didn't think to look at men because Milo's comment gave me the idea for the post but wow, that is an interesting contrast, thanks.

My first response would be that weight/physical appearance aren't as important in society to men as they are to women. Heavier men can still lead other men and be respected by other men and get attractive women. Heavier women can't really do any of these things. So being a fat woman is a real drag while being a fat man isn't as bad. But that's just a guess.

- Overweight women (BMI 25-29) have normal Wordsum, same as low and lean BMI women, while obese women (BMI >29) have lower Wordsum- Among men, no association between BMI and overweight or obesity (fat neckbeards and bodybuilders aren't necessarily unintelligent, I guess)- Different Wordsum groups don't really have different BMI. This is probably because the number of obese women, who are the only BMI group with distinctive Wordsum, is relatively small, so doesn't contribute much to the overall result.

Trends in women are mild, but negative correlation such that higher class, education, income, paternal education is associated to lower BMI. Particularly paternal education. It seems like politically extreme women at both ends of the spectrum may tend to be heavier, though small numbers of them so take that how you will.

Unless there's a massive, systematic error in self assessed height and weight, these traits seem not very relevant to high BMI in men. Some relevance in women, but average differences between most and least intelligent / successful only equivalent to least overweight vs overweight at the obesity cutoff. All groups are overweight. That reflects what you would expect for the modern US - every group is overweight (on average) across class and intellectual barriers, compared to the past, when every group across class and intellectual barriers was lean (on average).